Ruddy-breasted Crake

Porzana fusca

Species Index

9 February 2014

Possible regional races (polytypic)

Historical notes on Ruddy-breasted Crake, Porzana fusca

Habits. In Eastern Bengal this Crake literally swarms during the cold weather, when its numbers are probably increased by local migrants from the immediate North; otherwise it seems to be a resident bird over all its habitat. In the mornings and evenings it haunts rice-fields, swampy meadows and semi-open country but in the heat of the day is retires to the vegetation of deeper water or to reed-beds. It is a most accomplished skulker, avoiding showing itself even when its cover is systematically beaten. It flies well and fast, looking like a tiny Quail, except for its hanging legs as it rises. For two hundred yards or so it flies direct just above the water or cover and then hurls itself headlong into the latter. It feeds on freshwater mollusca, insects and the seeds and shoots of water-plants and young rice. Its call is a soft crake, which Hume syllabifies as "keek-keek-keek," but it is a silent bird, even in the breeding-season.